The Spatial Impact of Reaganomics: A Test of Six Models

Recent analyses of the Reagan budget reallocations suggest that the spatial distribution of public expenditures among the American states have undergone a major change. What remains unclear, however, is why the Reagan budget reallocations generated these clearly defined spatial effects. In trying to answer this question, we identify five explanations of the spatial impacts, explanations focusing on electoral, partisan, wealth, urban‐rural, and expenditure base effects. Along with controls for regional effects, these explanations are tested by OLS regression analysis of data on the state allocations of federal expenditures from the last Carter to the first Reagan budgets.